Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for implementing a communications protocol for a storage media interface.
Related Disclosure
A communications protocol for a storage media interface specifies how a controller on a storage medium receives commands for processing from a host over an interface. To enable faster adoption and interoperability of storage media connected to a host over a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) bus, industry participants have defined a communications protocol known as the non-volatile memory express (NVMe) standard. NVMe includes a register programming interface, command set, and feature set definition. These NVMe features enable companies and storage manufacturers to write standard drivers for each operating system, and enable interoperability between implementations that shortens testing and qualification cycles.
NAND flash is a popular non-volatile memory used in a storage medium. Other types of non-volatile memories include phase-change memory (PCM), magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) and resistive RAM (RRAM or ReRAM). PCM, one of the most promising emerging memory cell contenders, achieves non-volatility by re-melting a material with two distinguishable solid phases to store two or more different bit values. Discovered in 1968, this effect is today widely used in DVD-RW media, and is now making inroads into lithographed memory devices thanks to its favorable device size and scaling properties, high endurance and very fast readout. In MRAMs, data is stored in magnetic storage elements. The storage elements are formed from two ferromagnetic plates, each of which can hold a magnetic field, separated by a thin insulating layer. One of the two plates is a permanent magnet set to a particular polarity, while the other plate's field can be changed to match that of an external field to store memory. ReRAMs operate by changing the resistance of a specially formulated solid dielectric material. A ReRAM device contains a component called memory resistor (memristor), whose resistance varies when different voltages are imposed across it.